otograph. So one day I ordered the carriage and
asked her to dress up. We intended to go to a good professional. She
dressed up and the carriage was ready, but as we were going to start
news reached us that her mother was dangerously ill. So we went to see
her mother instead. The mother was very ill, and I had to leave her
there. Immediately afterwards I was sent away on duty to another station
and so could not bring her back. It was in fact after full three months
and a half that I returned and then though her mother was all right, my
wife was not. Within fifteen days of my return she died of puerperal
fever after child-birth and the child died too. A photograph of her was
never taken. When she dressed up for the last time on the day that she
left my home she had the necklace and the ear-rings on, as you see her
wearing in the photograph. My present wife has them now but she does not
generally put them on."
This was too big a pill for me to swallow. So I at once took French
leave from my office, bagged the photograph and rushed out on my
bicycle. I went to Mr. Smith's house and looked Mrs. Smith up. Of
course, she was much astonished to see a third lady in the picture but
could not guess who she was. This I had expected, as supposing Smith's
story to be true, this lady had never seen her husband's first wife. The
elder brother's wife, however, recognized the likeness at once and she
virtually repeated the story which Smith had told me earlier that day.
She even brought out the necklace and the ear-rings for my inspection
and conviction. They were the same as those in the photograph.
All the principal newspapers of that time got hold of the fact and
within a week there was any number of applications for the ghostly
photograph. But Mr. Jones refused to supply copies of it to anybody for
various reasons, the principal being that Smith would not allow it. I
am, however, the fortunate possessor of a copy which, for obvious
reasons, I am not allowed to show to anybody. One copy of the picture
was sent to America and another to England. I do not now remember
exactly to whom. My own copy I showed to the Rev. Father ---- M.A.,
D.SC., B.D., etc., and asked him to find out a scientific explanation of
the phenomenon. The following explanation was given by the gentleman. (I
am afraid I shall not be able to reproduce the learned Father's exact
words, but this is what he meant or at least what I understood him to
mean).
"The gi
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